Maico Frame Question

[Tahitian_Red]

So, everyone loves the overall greatness of the 1981 Maicos.  The 1978-79's are said to be the best handle Maicos.  It is Gospel that the 73-74 and 74.5 GP are wonderful. 

How do the 1975 and 1980 Maicos stack up against these other machines?  I have only seen one 1980 on race day and never a 1975.

[09.0]

Isn't it common knowledge that the '80 model was a dog in the handling department? I reckon the 75 would be a good bike, just the later model of the same racing era has more suspension therefore more desirable.

[Tahitian_Red]

I'm not a Maico guy.  What went wrong with the 1980 Maico's. 

[Husky500evo]

      I was hoping to read a few other replies on the subject of '75 and '80 models from the Maico experts. I owned an '80 model MC250 Mega 1 for a while and didn't think it was too bad. It felt a little weird in the handling department at first , because it was very high at the headstock and had long forks. It also seemed to have too short of a swingarm and wanted to wheelie too much when you didn't want it to. I fitted an '81 swingarm to the bike and it made it handle heaps better.
     Regarding the '75 Maicos, they seemed to be an in between model with basically the same frame as the '74, with some changes made to accommodate a new 5 speed motor (which apparently had some gearbox issues which were sorted out for the later AW's).     

[09.0]

I'm not a Maico guy. 

you should be. You don't know what you're missing!

[holeshot buddy]

i thought the 80 model was a bit
of a chopper

[JohnnyO]

I've got an '80 model 440 and it's basically taller at the steering head with longer forks compared to the '81 490, the steering geometry is much the same. I don't think they were a bad bike just different compared to the '79 and '81's.

[shorelinemc]

have an unfinished 1980 250 if any intrest also  81 SWING ARM CAN GO WITH IT